While the conclusion of the spring semester has left most of Indiana University's Bloomington campus empty, at least one corner was still swarming with life Monday afternoon. In the blazing heat, hundreds of faculty members stood in a long, winding line outside IU Auditorium to attend the first emergency all-faculty meeting since 2005.
A few feet away, in front of the Showalter Fountain, many IU graduate workers, whose labor strike instigated the emergency meeting, sung chants for solidarity, urging faculty members to extend their support of a union.
While the official outcome of the vote is still pending, the preliminary faculty response has swayed the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition members to suspend their month-long labor strike.
"The first full faculty meeting in 17 years sends a huge signal to the administration and to the rest of the country who's looking at Indiana University and hoping that the administration will do the right thing and come into dialogue with us," said Katie Shy, IGWC member.
Month-long strike suspended, to be revisited in fall
Monday night, members of the IGWC suspended the four-week strike with a 78% majority vote. The graduate workers plan to submit grades for the spring semester.
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